Read this blog and you will never trust yourself alone with a pair of shoes again. I am a retired university lecturer and shoe and foot savant dedicated to inform and entertain those fascinated by their feet and shoes.

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Friday, April 07, 2006

Foot tickling: Pain or pleasure?

Tickling has long been a source of fascination: Socrates, Aristotle, Bacon and Darwin have all had views on its purpose and effects. Darwin claimed that in order for laughter to be elicited, there must be an element of surprise, a pleasant hedonic state. In essence he argued that the tickle was a physical joke. Tickling may not be a laughing matter and recent research indicates although tickling may trigger smiling and giggling it has as much to do with amusement as crying while cutting onions has with sadness.

The tickling process starts simply enough, when receptors transmit the skin sensation along pathways to the brain. Just what the brain does with it remains unclear, although research is helping to identify some of the brain areas involved. Psychologists have found significant differences when tickling was compared to emotional reactions and to humour. Tickling appears to be a physiological function and involuntary way of toughening up vulnerable parts of the body. This would support the evolutionary necessity of rough-and-tumble play in developing children.

One hypothesis is tickling evolved to encourage humans to instinctively protect soft body areas from attack. This would explain why we try to fend off the tickler, whilst appearing to enjoy it. Those who were ticklish had an evolutionary advantage because they were practiced at defending vulnerable areas and laughing gave them more advantage because it encouraged their tormentors to continue. Tickling theorists have established there are two types of tickle, and whether it makes you laugh or not depends on the type of tickle.

Knismesis tickling is a light or feather touch, an annoying sensation or movement across the skin.

Gargalesis is the heavy or laughter-associated tickling. The idea that reactions to tickling are a sign of amusement is based on the assumption that the smiling that occurs during tickling is the same as that during humour. Scientists were keen to explore whether garagalesis tickling was a reaction or reflex or a behaviour. In the research, volunteers were filmed while they were tickled from behind by a researcher for ten seconds. They were also filmed reacting to jokes recorded by comedians and while they put their hand in icy water for as long as they could. At the end of the experiment they answered questions about how they felt in the different conditions. The researchers then looked at the films to assess negative and positive facial expressions.

In particular, researchers looked for the so-called “Duchenne smile” which involves both the smile and a creasing of the skin around the eyes, and which is a response to humour. If volunteers were enjoying the tickle, they would show signs of a Duchenne smile. The results indicate, that when tickled, people did show some Duchenne smiles they also showed facial expressions associated with pain, including wrinkling of the nose and raising the upper lip. While they were being tickled, they also showed more emotions – pain and smiling compared to when they were listening to the comedian. That, say the researchers, implies that smiling is an automatic response to a stimulus rather than a sign of emotion. The findings suggest ticklish smiling need have no closer a connection to mirth and merriment than crying when cutting onions has to sorrow and sadness. However, the exact process that underlies the tickling phenomenon remains an open question.

Knowing the pathways which are involved in tickling helps researchers understand just how the brain works. Information about how the brain is able to separate tickle from self-tickle, for example, may be of use to schizophrenia researchers. Schizophrenics can have difficulty distinguishing external events from self-generated ones, believing, say, that they are being touched when they are not. People with schizophrenia can tickle themselves because the produce realistic hallucinations. They can experience self-tickling with the same intensity as if it were produced by someone else.

Tickling has been used as a torture for centuries and people are warned against heavy foot tickling when engaged in foreplay. Tickling assaults today are more common than reported.

Anatomically the sensory supply to the foot and genitalia sit adjacent in the brain and the theory is neural print through might cause cross association in some people. Hence tickling the feet would be the equivalent to 'tickling their fancy.' Most certainly the nerve supply to the foot passes through the pelvic region and this again may have some peripheral association. Traumatic episodes, such as a ticking assault, could forge behavioural associations where tickling and micturation or sexual arousal including ejaculation, may be linked. Although there are other competing theories behaviouralists believe this is how foot fetishism and shoe restifism arise. It is the nature versus nurture debate.

Apparently foot tickling is very popular in North America. No idea why this is so, but it is true to say since the 18th century all things foot and shoe have taken on special meaning. Many theories prevail but no satisfactory explanation has yet been put forward. Today’s society is very aware of the shoe as a weapon and this association is unique to the 21st century so maybe foot tickling is a reaction to the fearful aspects of shoes and the spectre of terrorism.

Primitive tribes held painful coming of age rituals and valued the ability to endure pain as a prerequisite for marriage. The proof of pain may by itself have been the ultimate proof scarification was an unselfish act and that it was done to give pleasure to others (Rubin, 1949). Certainly tribes may have used pain to induce passion and thus fertility. This might begin to explain the action of footbinding.

The registration of pain is caused by the release of chemicals such as bradykinnin, substance P and prostaglandins and can be divided into two types somatic and visceral. Somantic pain most often is in the muscles and skin and by comparison to visceral pain is mild. It radiates from internal organs causing nausea and weakness. Somatic pain arises by stimulation of the free nerve endings that lie near the surface of the skin. Once activated these transmit signals to the brain, but there is no guarantee the sensation will be perceived as painful. Chemical messengers can be thwarted in several ways including nerves, which transmit sensations of deep pressure, vibration, heat and cold, overriding the pain signals. Moods also affect the process pain with anxiety causing it to sharpen.

Once pain has been registered for 20-40 minutes the body will begin to produce opiate like chemicals to reduce pain sensations. The release of chemicals causes anaesthetic europhoric and trance like qualities. Moderate anxiety increases the response to pain. High levels of fear including terror decrease the response. Pain can trigger a reaction from the autonomic nervous system causing an increase rate of breathing heart rate and blood pressure which in some people may enhance their sexual sensitivity or experience.

Tickling is used as stimulation especially in the BDSM abrasion scene. Tickling of the soles of the feet can produce extreme mental distress. Algophilia describes a sexual arousal gained by sensation of pain which may well explain why some people find having their feet tickled gives them incredible orgasms.

According to Kinsey, “the tactile sensitivity of the foot may actually be greater than any other part of the body, including the fingertips.” Tickling has been used as a pre-coital activity from early history. Queen Hatshepsut (1507–1458 BC) had her lovers prepared with their feet first rubbed and scented with oil aniseed oil until they glowed . Eunuchs would tickle her feet with peacock feathers to bring her to the pitch of sexual readiness.

I've heard that excessive tickling of the feet can cause extreem pain. But I want to know what kind of 'pain', what it feels like and why it happens. I mean it's only tickling it can't possibly hurt. But studies do show that it's possible.

I've seen people cry out in agony telling thier tickler to stop, and I mean screaming it! I saw this one girl get tickled for a little over an hour on her bare feet! She was a mess afterward. I don't even know how she could walk after what she went through! I was playing a tickling game with my Girlfriend and and I got my feet tickled for 35 minutes straight without a break and I felt wierd after that!

I know of a young couple where the man tickled his girlfriend too hard and she said, "Stop, it you're hurting me!" A noisy next door lady-neighbor mistook this as wife abuse and called the police on him! The girlfriend had to explain to the cops that her lover was only tickling him! The guy better be careful from now on! If he's going to tickle her in the future, save it for the park or beach, maybe, and/or if the wife objects to it, don't do it anymore! Find some other activity to do like massaging, rubbing, kissing, etc.

Hello dylan.... Tickling can eventully hurt or make you cry. Itthe brain reacting. You want the person to stop and they dont because they think your enjoying it . when your really not. Feel free to email ke i can give you more of an indept @ djsmitty93@gmail.com

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